Sunday, May 10, 2015

Seems all we do these days is work on the apartment and then recoup in bed, feeding sore muscles and backs with Doane's back pills. It is Sunday and we are sick of the apartment and of working on it. It will be great when we are done, but it feels like that will be never. We are getting into the land of being busy again in our other lives, and every day or several days that I have to take off to go look at a painting or a high chest feels like a day wasted at the building, but we do have to continue on our paths of making paychecks!

We spent much of the week procuring things for the apartment, which is my favorite part, naturally. We hit Marden's which was selling the last pieces of furniture from a salvage operation at Scandinavian Designs warehouse in Chicago. To date we have procured a side board, a side table and a few chairs. All in all about $3000 worth of furniture (if SD's website is to be believed) for the low, low price of $420.00. The chairs are all leather and the sideboard and side table are elmwood veneer with nickel plated steel

We also found a wood mill on Craigslist that was advertising 12' long x 24-26" wide pine slabs that we could potentially use for a bar top. We borrowed Dan Waldron's trailer and drove 250 miles, hitting the saw mill first and then a record three Marden's in one day.

We thought it would be a good idea, since we had the trailer, to go pick up the five rolls of carpeting, and padding that we'd purchased several months before in Brewer.

The wood mill was the best part of the day. The guy does this as a hobby and had taken out three slabs that he thought we might like.

Upon reentry into Belfast some eight hours later...we had the foresight to text our man with a new toy, David Carlson, and asked him if he and his new bobcat could meet us at the building. I think David should start driving the thing around town, like the guy in the John Deere tractor who drives up and down Main Street in the mornings!

Thank the gods for David and his crew! The slab, which weighs probably around 175 to 200 lbs (its still green) fit beautifully on the forks of the lift and all the carpet rolls went right on top! David expertly placed the goods right up on the second floor porch.

Thank you David, Jared, and Davey for all your help. These tired boys and their bulldog are mighty grateful!

One can never have enough practice and David guided his bobcat like a pro!

Here is the $800, swivel,leather chair on which Greg talked the guy at Marden's down to $125.00 because it was wobbly. I wanted to protect the leather...its a gorgeous chair. Going up!

Once we got all this in the apartment, Greg and I moved it upstairs to the master bedroom. Each roll of carpeting is 13' long.

I really like this carpeting, but I did realize yesterday after moving the 1000 square feet of it that will line the upstairs, how very hotel like it is. Crossing my fingers that I didn't make a mistake

Our new breakfast bar top. The grain is beautiful. I am thinking a hand rubbed waterlox finish would be gorgeous on here. We have enough left over from the first floor bathroom floor. We are supposed to let it sit flat for 6 weeks and turn it to slowly dry....

Needs a nice sanding and the grain will pop.

The padding rolls waiting to go up the stairs with the stair felt. We bought the rest of the roll of carpeting to finish the main stairs to the apartment...they gave us a great deal and loaded all the carpet onto the trailer.

Our haul so far. We just bought another load of stuff from a friend's sister this morning, The elm tables are totally not my taste, but they are cool.

I picked the sign up at a local flea market directly from the artist. Perfect for the stairwell.

Got the appliances and hooked the fridge up. A major accomplishment.

We realize we are one countertop short if we want to have as much seamlessness as possible. We are looking for a 6 x 2' piece of black or gray stone for cheap if anyone can think of something...otherwise we will pick one up when we go back to IKEA in a few weeks to return stuff, and pick up a trundle day bed for the upstairs living room. Still waiting for those 8 freakin' drawer fronts to arrive!

I spent yesterday on a ladder, on this staging, not looking down, painting the cathedral ceiling-ed stairwell. Whose idea was that??

Finally, the second floor painting is finished. Carpeting could go down, but casing windows first is probably a better idea.

I spent a bit of time the other day down at Saturday Cove beach looking for pebbles and interesting small treasures for Greg to glue into the cracks and creases of the downstairs vanity top. It looks so great..I was doubtful after the first crack appeared in the wood, but now I am a believer. The vanity looks great, love it.

Today is our day off, and we started out shopping for the apartment. Greg found the lights for the master bath and we bought some furniture. Now off to start getting the boat ready for the season and to open up Sunny Side for our first renters on Tuesday....thanks to Bonnie Pierce for doing all the hard work there!

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Well. my back tells me we did it. Yesterday marked the day of the last floor being put down (save for the carpeting, but we aren't installing that.)

The mudroom at the entrance to the apartment now has a floor!

Instead of looking like this....

The space has been transformed with the revolutionary new product that softens foot falls (in blue) and the grey ash / oak (?) flooring.

It makes a beautiful entry way and we are hella excited its done. Took one day of the two of us laying and stapling, but so much better than a week to put down a tile floor. Now to get the closet doors (today), and wait for delivery of the kitchen appliances.

We were finally able to order get delivery on the rest of the kitchen, which should be here next week.

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Phew, what a week! We are taking Sundays off these days, so last Sunday, on our procurement day, we found ourselves looking at hardwood flooring for the mud room, to try and save us time. We came back to the building and unloaded and at that time, the kitchen looked like this. No floor, no cabinets, and the wall in the center of the space still unpainted.

I took the stain we used on the risers and for the trim in the living room and had it made into a paint. I can't stop looking at the color because it is so rich and has such a great depth of intensity to it. The darker gray is being used on the central wall and the stair core and really adds a nice cozy warmth to the space. You'll notice the first cut out of the walls in the kitchen...this is for adding a new plug for the stove. We thought we would do a gas stove, but never put in the propane tank for it. So now with an electric oven, we've had to tunnel under the wall and the floor of the mud room to get it over to the electrical box.

I think I posted last week about the great find on ash flooring. It is beautiful, and made in North America.

By Monday, we were flying....Took us all day and into some of the wee hours of Tuesday morning, but we installed the floor, overtop of the blue Thermoquiet layer and also a moisture barrier paper. The Thermoquiet does seem to muffle the sound of someone walking above...just not someone running a table saw!!

We finished Tuesday morning around 8:30 am, just in time to get the floor stapler and air compressor back to the rental place in under 24 hours. Note that we also have wiring for under cabinet lights now too....hence the other hole in the wall! The color of the floor is just perfect. We love it!

By Wednesday evening, we had all the easy cabinets installed. Greg took the last two cabinets and had to retrofit them around some plumbing pipes. IKEA recommends that the rail onto which the cabinets fit is screwed into the studs every 12". For an old building like this one, that was a tall order, so Greg tore out some more wall board and added nailers... these cabinets ain't going nowhere!

The same day the cabinets went up, the door fronts on the upper cabinets were put in place...fairly easy, most of the doors just snap in place on the hinges and all of them have soft close hardware....I love it!

This kitchen has some storage too! I love this bank of drawers, and will love them even more when IKEA decides to make more drawer fronts! We are short six drawer fronts at the moment. It was eight, but we have to convert the set of drawers next to the fridge into a cabinet with doors because of the large pipe coming through from upstairs.

By Saturday Afternoon, about 115 boxes of kitchen had been installed. We will wait to put the side panels on the cases until after the backsplash is installed. Appliances come Tuesday and then we can fit the counter tops. We could have running water by Friday of next week!

All in all a great week. We are installing another wood floor (same color) on Monday in the mud room.

A bit about us

Welcome to Slum and Blight: This is a project blog, documenting our work on an old building that my spouse Greg and I bought each other for our wedding present. The city where we live declared our neighborhood "Slum and Blight" in order to qualify for government funds to help fix up this downtown area. We like to think of our building as the gateway to Slum and Blight. Sit back, relax and scroll through my entries about the work we are doing.